Turkish airlines hit 68.6m passenger record in 2017

Turkish Airlines has said that it finished year 2017 airlifting no fewer than 68.6 million passengers, which is a record for the carrier. The figure implies an increased passenger factor of 9.3 per cent.

The number of passengers in 2017 compared to the previous year reached 79.1 per cent by increasing 4.7 points. The flag carrier has reached highest load factor rate with 79.5 per cent in the last month of 2017 in its history.

Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee of Turkish Airline, M. İlker Aycı, said the record was a result of adequate preparation for the year.

He said: “We believe that 2017 year will be much better year than 2016. We made our plans and savings accordingly. We are analysing the conditions of our home country, our region, our industry, the developments and trends in aviation and tourism sector.

“I believe that we will also complete 2018 successfully and Turkish Airlines will complete the year with increased power, brand value and market share once again,” he said.

An evaluation of December 2017 traffic results shows that Total Load Factor improved by 5.1 points to 79.7 per cent with an increase of 8.9 per cent in Available Seat Kilometer, while international LF increased by five points to 79.2 per cent. Domestic and International flights have reached the highest LF of Turkish Airlines history.

Double-digit growth in demand (revenue per kilometer) that commenced in July, kept on with 16.3 per cent demand growth.

Total number of passengers carried went up by 21.4 per cent reaching 5.5 million passengers. Compared to December 2015, number of passengers carried and demand increased by 17 per cent.

Excluding international-to-international transfer passengers (transit passengers), number of international passengers went up by 39 per cent.

In December, cargo/mail volume increased by 18.4 per cent, compared to December 2016. Main contributors to the growth in cargo/mail volume, are Middle East with 28.7 per cent increase and Europe with 24 per cent increase.

In December, Load Factor increased for all regions. Middle East, North America and Africa showed visible growth among other regions with 7,1 points, 6.8 points and 5.6 points increase, respectively.

Evaluation of January-December 2017 Traffic Results shows that during January-December, increase in demand and total number of passengers was 7.9 per cent and 9.3 per cent, respectively, over the same period of last year. Total number of passengers reached to 68.6 million.

During January-December, total Load Factor improved by 4.7 points up to 79.1 per cent, while international Load Factor increased by five points, up to 78.4 per cent.